According to information obtained by reliable sources, operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) have placed the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, in solitary confinement without access to sunlight for twenty-three hours a day.
Since his rendition in June, the pro-Biafra activist has also apparently been denied the right to change his clothes, and any detainee who exchanges pleasantries with him is reportedly sentenced to a solitary cell or maximum security penalty, according to reports.
According to a press release issued by Kanu's attorneys, all of these inhumane treatments and others are being administered as punishment for his crimes against humanity.
According to SaharaReporters, the statement was signed by two of Kanu's most prominent attorneys, Aloy Ejimakor and Ifeanyi Ejiofor, and made available to the media on Thursday.
It was stated that Mazi Nnamdi Kanu's custody conditions at the DSS amounted to torture in a statement titled,
His lawyers further claimed that the DSS officers refused to allow him to get a new set of glasses because the ones he was wearing during his kidnapping in Kenya had been broken into pieces by the officials.
"Our client, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, has directed us to make the following facts public," the statement stated.
In spite of an earlier court ruling, the detainee's treatment at the Department of State Services headquarters in Abuja remains severe, degrading and brutal.
It is stated in the complaint that "he is solitarily confined to a very small cell twenty-three (23) hours a day, without access to sunlight and without any opportunity for social interaction." He believes that this is being done with the intent of causing him significant emotional and mental suffering as well as psychologically breaking him.
"That any detainee who comes into contact with him and greets him during the one hour he is permitted to spend outside his cell is immediately placed in solitary confinement or moved to highest security as a punishment for just exchanging hello with him." The result has been that prisoners have resorted to avoiding him and exchanging salutations with him, rather than engaging in any other type of social interaction with him.
Because of the extraordinary rendition by the Nigerian government, he has not been permitted to change his attire, and the Jewish prayer shawls and other religious objects brought to him by his Counsel have been refused and returned.
This is in response to the DSS's refusal to replace his corrective glasses (lenses), which were destroyed by agents of the Nigerian government while abducting him in Kenya as part of the abuse they unleashed on him during the abduction. Consequently, the condition of his vision has declined rapidly.
This includes being constrained to meeting with his Counsel in a setting that does not allow him to engage in confidential conversations with him, as well as being refused access to legal paperwork that his Counsel provides to him for evaluation.
The fact that he is not permitted to sleep with a pillow has resulted in him having acid reflux, which manifests itself as acute burning sensations in his chest, chest pains, and extreme trouble swallowing.
This is to inform you that on the 17th of July, 2021, one of his lawyers (the undersigned Barrister Aloy Ejimakor) was held and interrogated for hours by the DSS while on a visitation with Mazi Nnamdi Kanu at the DSS headquarters. Mazi Kanu, who was present during the detention before being carried away, was upset and alarmed by the action, which he perceives to be a flagrant act of intimidation against his legal counsel by the authorities.
It is claimed that he has been denied access to the British Consul despite her repeated requests to meet with him; and on the day of his most recent court appearance (10th November, 2021), the British Consul, who was in court to observe the proceedings, was intimidated by DSS officers, who prevented her from getting close to Mazi Kanu. "
It is his understanding that the Department of Homeland Security has ignored his repeated requests for an independent medical examination to ascertain the amount of damage done to his body by a suspected drug he may have been injected with during the kidnapping and extraordinary rendition. According to him, the injected drug is depleting the potassium content of his body, resulting in constipation, a feeling of skipped heart beats, palpitations, exhaustion and muscle weakness/spasms, as well as feeling numb and tingling in his extremities.
"That, in light of the foregoing, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu continues to experience a continuous and heightened sense of imminent threat to his overall well-being and safety while incarcerated at the DSS facility where he is being detained."
Source: Sahara reporters
